Can a brother be charged with a lewd act against his younger sister?
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Can a brother be charged with a lewd act against his younger sister?
A friend was telling me the story of how he had his 2 year old sister to touch his privates and lick them (like candy) when he was around 9 years old (no sexual-intercourse). 30 years have passed since then. The sister didn’t remember the incident but the brother brought it up during conversation when talking about possibly reasons why their family was so estranged. Now the brother is concerned that the sister might press charges or similar. What could happen here?
Asked on October 17, 2011 under Criminal Law, North Carolina
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Whether or not your friend will be subject to charges for lewd and indecent behavior with respect to improper acts that he did when he and his sister were minors remains to be seen, but given the passage of thirty (30) years and the fact that both your friend and sisters were minirs and relatively young, two (2) and nine (9) years of age, the chances of any criminal filing seems pretty remote.
The rationale is that any charges to be filed may very well be time barred by the statute of limitations. And if not barred, the charges would pertain to a minor where the penalties upon conviction are quite different than with an adult for the same crime. Since your friend is now an adult, the changes of him being charged as a juvenile for an improper act that occurred when he was a juvenile is unlikely.
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